Tag: Hal Finney

The popularity and unprecedented growth of Bitcoin cannot be denied despite all the bad publicity it got during the past few years. It is true that Bitcoin …

The popularity and unprecedented growth of Bitcoin cannot be denied despite all the bad publicity it got during the past few years. It is true that Bitcoin did not get off to a great start and faced many challenges. However, the cryptocurrency found its place among the most successful and swiftly spreading technologies.

The first ever Bitcoin transaction happened on the 12th of January 2009, between Satoshi Nakamoto and Hal Finney in which Nakamoto sent Finney a mere ten Bitcoins. Nakamoto is the mysterious founder of Bitcoin.

One of the most fascinating events regarding Bitcoin cryptocurrency took place when Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer by profession and Bitcoin enthusiast, purchased two pizzas for ten thousand Bitcoins, worth some twenty-five dollars at the time. Had he kept this amount, he would have been able to cash around seventy million dollars with the cryptocurrency market boom in 2017.

There are many Cryptomillionares today who purchase jets, cars, and property with Bitcoins but the first such huge transaction was made by a car enthusiast based in Florida, who in December 2013, bought a Tesla Model S in Bitcoins.

The largest transaction made using Bitcoin in 2013, was worth over one hundred and forty-nine million dollars, when the market value of a Bitcoin was equal to seven hundred and twenty-nine dollars. There is no evidence or information about what this transaction was in fact for, nor is it known where the receiver used the transferred Bitcoins.

The first transaction that took place between co-peers in space by Genesis mining, a Bitcoin cloud mining firm, left the world gob-smacked. This idea was coined as an outreach strategy, to promote Bitcoin throughout the world.

These are not the only interesting accounts of Bitcoin transactions that will go down as historical events and demonstrate just how astounding this digital currency technology is.

As we said before, he has 980,000 BTC, but he also has the same amount of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), and Bitcoin Gold (BTG), among …

Satoshi Nakamoto is one of the most popular figures in the crypto space, even when nobody knows who he really is. He is the creator of Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency in the market.

When he created Bitcoin, he left a large sum of Bitcoin for himself, which some estimate that could be close to 980,000 Bitcoins. But how much money in virtual currencies does Satoshi Nakamoto really have?

Is Satoshi The Richest Individual In The World?

As we said before, he has 980,000 BTC, but he also has the same amount of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), and Bitcoin Gold (BTG), among others. Nevertheless, after 10 years since Bitcoin’s launch, nobody knows who he really is.

Satoshi Nakamoto has different cryptocurrency wallets. However, one that we know it’s his wallet is this one: 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa

There are several individuals that are suspected to be Satoshi Nakamoto. One of them is Hal Finney, a cypherpunk that was also involved in cryptography before working on Bitcoin. He was one of the individuals on the mailing list that received Bitcoin’s whitepaper. He has also sent several messages to Satoshi to discuss several issues and improve Bitcoin.

Satoshi Nakamoto has also selected him to receive the first-ever Bitcoin transaction in the space, that was sent by Satoshi himself. Hal passed away back in August 2014 due to Low Gehrig’s disease.

Another possible Bitcoin creator is Nick Szabo, also a cryptographer and cypherpunk as Hal Finney. Before Bitcoin, Szabo published a platform called “BitGold,” an e-currency, with some technical limitations, that was similar in some ways to Bitcoin. There are some enthusiasts that believe that Szabo launched Bitcoin a few years later.

Adam Back is another possibility. He started studying computers and cryptography and developed the hashcash concept in 1997. This was an early application of Proof of Work (PoW), which allows users to link Mr. Back with Nakamoto.

Back is currently working as the CEO of Blockstream, a company that produces blockchain solutions for institutions and companies. The firm provides funds to Bitcoin core developers as well.

The reason why Satoshi Nakamoto has so many Bitcoin is due to the fact he was the first Bitcoin miner and mined for a large period of time. At that time, the block reward was capped at 50 BTC, while now, each block gives a reward of 12.5 BTC. In the near future, Bitcoin is going to experience a new halvening that will reduce the new issuance of Bitcoin to 6.25 BTC per block.

There are different reasons why Satoshi Nakamoto does not want to spend his Bitcoin. Indeed, since 2011, he stopped moving them. Satoshi Nakamoto could just have passed away and this is the reason why he is not using his BTC. Maybe, he is not using them because he is afraid of a panic reaction or because he might not want to spend them too early.

At the time Bitcoin was being traded close to $20,000, he had a net worth of $21 billion, becoming one of the richest individuals alive. In the future, if the market starts a new bull run, he could have even a larger sum of money.

Until now, there are no clues regarding Satoshi Nakamoto or who he really is. However, he had the possibility to change the world and create a virtual currency that is growing day after day.

Following the financial difficulties, on October 31st, 2008, a mysterious individual who called himself Satoshi Nakamoto published a document which …

A single decade can be a lot of time, or hardly any, depending on the situation. In the case of Bitcoin (BTC), the first and largest cryptocurrency currently on the market, these past ten years represent its entire existence. Since Bitcoin is the first digital coin, that also means that the past ten years represent the entire history of cryptocurrency.

In that regard, a decade is a short period which did not allow digital coins enough time to properly develop and take care of the emerging problems. However, the same decade was filled with various events, incidents, and other types of extremely important moments in Bitcoin’s history. These were the moments that defined the coin and influenced its path. Without them, Bitcoin may not even be around right now. Or, it might have been bigger, better, and more widely accepted. That — we can never know.

However, what we do know is that the coin was defined — for better or worse — by these events. Here are a few of them.

1) The Publication Of Bitcoin’s White Paper

Following the financial difficulties, on October 31st, 2008, a mysterious individual who called himself Satoshi Nakamoto published a document which we now know as Bitcoin’s white paper. While this was still not the official launch of the coin, many have taken this event as the birth of Bitcoin. Nakamoto released the Bitcoin software, on which he was supposedly working since 2007. Only two months and three days later, on January 3rd, 2009, Bitcoin’s first block was mined, and the coin went into circulation, starting a crypto trend that spread around the world.

2) Nick Szabo Presents His ‘BitGold’ Proposal

On December 27th, 2008, Crypto OG Nick Szabo proposed a new monetary system on his blog, calling it BitGold. The idea of digital money was not new at this point, as Bitcoin’s own white paper got published two months earlier, on October 31st. However, the two projects did share a lot of similarities, such as PoW, a limited supply, and its independence from any kind of centralized third party. For a lot of people, this was proof that Szabo is actually the man behind the name Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s mysterious creator.

3) The First Bitcoin Transaction

Only nine days after the mining of Bitcoin’s Genesis block, the first ever BTC transaction was made. Nakamoto made it himself, sending the funds to a cryptographer Hal Finney. Since then, many suspected Finney of being the man behind the name, although it was never proven. Finney was later diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, only two months after Nakamoto himself withdrew back into the shadows. Finney denied being Nakamoto, although he stated that he always loved crypto. Finally, he passed away in 2014.

4) The Most Expensive Pizzas In The World

We all know how valuable Bitcoin is these days, and while it is far from its all-time high, its value is still not something that should be dismissed. However, this was not always the case, and BTC was literally worthless in its early days. After it started receiving value, people got interested, although they were desperate for a real use case for the coin. So much so, in fact, that one man, called Laszlo Hanyecz, offered to give 10,000 BTC to someone who would deliver him two Papa John’s pizzas, back in 2010. Back then, 10,000 BTC was only around $41. These days, that amount would be around $39 million.

5) The Birth Of HODL

Back in the final days of 2013, a drunk crypto trader made a post on BitcoinTalk stating that he is done trading. His new plan was to buy the coins and hold them until BTC reaches some higher price. However, while typing drunk, he made a tiny typo that gave birth to a meme, which later turned into a well-known crypto trend. This is how the term HODLingwas born, and it means just what the trader said — holding the coins for a long time while waiting for an improvement in regards to price.

6) The Hack Of Mt. Gox

Not all of the events that impacted Bitcoin are funny, and some of them were quite damaging at the time. One such event is the hack of Mt. Gox, which was pretty much the only Bitcoin exchange back in 2014. Tomorrow, February 28th will be exactly five years from the incident, when hackers managed to breach the exchange’s defenses and steal 740,000 BTC ($460 million). This was a huge incident at the time, and while exchange hacks are no laughing matter, they are quite common these days, unfortunately.

7) Bitcoin Hits The $20,000 Mark

Many events surrounding Bitcoin made history, but one of the biggest ones was when the coin reached the price of $20,000 on December 17th, 2017. This was a huge deal for the coin that was called worthless only a few years before, and the market behavior at the time is still considered the longest and largest bull run to date. Of course, it was followed by a catastrophic decline which started the longest and harshest crypto winter in the past ten years, but the achievement still stands.

There are many more events that made history, impacting Bitcoin and the crypto trend, although we consider these seven to be the largest ones. For more of them, you can check out decryptmedia’s list which lists up to 17 such events.

This has led some to believe Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. Date: December 27, 2008. Media: You can read the proposal here.

Bitcoin has caused quite the storm over the last ten years. Since its inception in October 2008, the crypto has been more controversial than Eminem, used to buy more drugs than Snoop Dogg and responsible for more money laundering than, well, not banks—they’re much worse. Which is kind of funny: Given that the idea of the world’s first, real digital currency sounds pretty prosaic, the story of Bitcoin has been surprisingly dramatic.

Here are the most defining moments in the history of Bitcoin:

Nick Szabo blogs about his BitGold proposal

Crypto OG Nick Szabo proposed the BitGold system on his blog on December 27, 2008, which was a radically new idea for digital money. It has major similarities to Bitcoin, as expressed in the Bitcoin whitepaper. For a start, it has a limited money supply to protect against inflation, it uses “proof-of-work” to create new blocks, and it avoids the need of a trusted third party. Even the name is similar. This has led some to believe Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin.

Satoshi Nakamoto publishes the Bitcoin whitepaper

The birth of Bitcoin. On a cryptography mailing list at metzdowd.com, Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper, setting down an ingenious system for peer-to-peer electronic cash. In January, 2009, Nakamoto released the Bitcoin software, having been writing the code for it since 2007. Since then, the whitepaper has been translated into 19 languages. The first Bitcoin block was mined on January 3, 2009 and contained a headline from the Times magazine that reads, “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” Looks like the banking system hasn’t changed much.

Hal Finney receives the first Bitcoin transaction

Hal Finney was a cryptographer who was among the first few people to start mining Bitcoin. He received the first Bitcoin transaction from Nakamoto—one data point among many that lead many to believe he was, in fact, Nakamoto. Finney was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 2009, just two months before Nakamoto disappeared forever. He died in 2014 and his body was cryogenically preserved by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. In a post on BitcoinTalk, he said, “I have always loved crypto, the mystery and the paradox of it.”

Laszlo Hanyecz pays 10,000 Bitcoin for two Papa John’s pizzas

Have you ever looked back on a meal and thought to yourself, that was expensive? This would certainly be there case for Laszlo Hanyecz: He traded 10,000 Bitcoin to someone on BitcoinTalk to get them to have delivered to him two Papa John’s pizzas. At the time, Bitcoin was all but worthless (10,000= $41.) Now it would be worth $38 million. Why did he do it? “I just think it would be interesting if I could say that I paid for a pizza in bitcoins,” he wrote in a follow-up comment. You’d think someone would learn from doing something like this but oh no, just last year, he did it again.

The Winklevoss twins say they own 108,000 Bitcoin

Just after Facebook co-inventors the Winklevoss twins announced how much Bitcoin they owned, the price of dropped 60% to $105. (Prompting Business Insider to observe that it must be a “tough time” to own so much cryptocurrency.) That amount of Bitcoin is now worth $410 million. (Must be a tough time to be so rich.) This iconic image was taken much later as they met with Jihan Wu, head of Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain. Let’s hope that this time, they don’t get Zuckerberged.

A drunk trader mistypes HOLD, sparking big Bitcoin meme

Have you ever been so drunk you mistyped something three times —and sparked a meme that would define a movement? No, us neither (even Ben.) But, one trader did, in 2013, posting on BitcoinTalk that he was done with trading and planned to just wait it out long term. At the time Bitcoin was worth $644 so, presumably, it paid off. But the typo has subsequently become the rallying cry among people who believe it’s better to hold onto their Bitcoin rather than spend it. We think that’s a bad idea—spending Bitcoin will ensure its adoption and cause the price to increase more than holding. Indeed, here’s our guide of where you can spend Bitcoin everywhere.

Crypto exchange Mt. Gox gets hacked for $460 million

Back in 2014, Mt Gox was pretty much the only Bitcoin exchange, handling some 70% of all transactions. That made it a ripe target: it was hacked and lost 740,000 Bitcoin ($460 million). Nowadays, exchange hacks are all too common. Just last year, Coincheck lost 500 million NEM ($500 million) and Coinrail lost a variety of cryptocurrencies worth $40 million. Still the Mt. Gox mystery remains one of the most legendary crypto hack of all time.

Newsweek identifies “Satoshi Nakamoto”

It sounded too good to be true:The inventor of Bitcoin, who went to such great lengths to keep his identity a secret was actually living in plain sight. Indeed, Newsweek tracked down a mathematician named “Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto,” who confusingly admitted to being the inventor of Bitcoin. (He though the Newsweek reporter was referring to a government program he had once been involved in.) Well, it turned out that this Nakamoto actually nothing to do with the invention of Bitcoin. (Though he had attended a Bitcoin meetup with Nick Szabo, among others.) This was either a red herring or confirmation that Szabo is The Dude, depending on your belief system.

Craig Wright claims he is Satoshi Nakamoto

Craig Wright has “proven” he’s Satoshi Nakamoto more times than there are nodes on the Bitcoin network. And yet, he hasn’t provided a shred of real evidence. In fact, there is even an app that lets you create identical “proofs,” so you too, can be Satoshi. In other words, Nakamoto remains anonymous.

Date: 2 May 2016

Media: WIRED published this story full of clues in 2015, Craig Wright came out to the BBC in a now-deleted post in 2016 and then reaffirmed his stance again and again including this time in 2018.

Seismic moment: 5/10

A dude holds up a “Buy Bitcoin” sign in Congress

Sometimes all you need is a sign. And this time, it was in the form of a yellow notepad with “Buy Bitcoin” written on. The image was broadcast live from Capitol Hill, and fro that moment in July, 2017, the price of the crypto climbed eight times higher, to its peak in December, 2017. Even now, despite its steep plunge, Bitcoin is nearly double its price back then. What did this guy know that we don’t?

Bitcoin Cash is formed from Bitcoin

Is Bitcoin Bitcoin or is Bitcoin Cash Bitcoin? It’s hard to tell. In August, 2017, two mining pools ViaBTC and BitcoinABC decided to create a fork of Bitcoin called Bitcoin Cash. In this version, there are larger block sizes, allowing the network to handle more transactions. But it would later suffer the same fate as the original Bitcoin, when it too split in two. Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV were the result, and both networks have struggled to reach the peaks of the original fork. We wish it the best of luck.

A new protocol increases the Bitcoin block size when needed

Should Bitcoin have a block size limit of 1 MB? It’s a fairly simple question, but one that’s caused years of controversy. The limit was designed to deter spam and it stops the Bitcoin blockchain from becoming too bloated, but the side effect has been higher fees and fewer transactions. Segwit was introduced to allow the network to cope with more demand but it has taken years for it to be widely adopted. It lets the block sizes rise above 1 MB when necessary, keeping transaction fees low.

Carlos Matos sings his love for Bitconnect

You know that chirpy feeling when you invest in a Ponzi scheme early and start making outrageous sums of money? Well it’s best not to let those emotions out on stage in front of thousands of people. That’s what investor Carlos Matos did after buying Bitconnect and starting to make $100,000 a week. He became an Internet meme with his shouts of “NO NO NOH” and “WASA WASA WASUP?” Bitconnect was eventually shut down amid claims it was a Ponzi scheme. The FBI is reportedly investigating.

Roger Ver ragequits a YouTube interview

Longtime Bitcoin proponent and self-made millionaire, Roger Ver, likes getting his own way. So much so, that when Bitcoin enthusiast John Carvalho kept referring to Bitcoin Cash (a flavor of Bitcoin Ver created) as “BCash,” Ver got angry, flipped the bird and ended the interview. He later apologized—but not for creating Bitcoin Cash.

The price of one Bitcoin reaches $20,000

Imagine investing in Bitcoin when it was $1 only to see your investment rise two million percent. Had you held on, you would have hit $20,000. Billions of dollars poured into the crypto market in 2017, creating a speculative bubble that started to crash shortly after the beginning of 2018. By lastyear’s end, the price of Bitcoin had fallen by 85 percent. As mentioned, plenty of people are still hodling, with bulls saying the best is yet to come. (If you’re one, please make sure you don’t throw away your hard drive.)

Binance CEO signs a big partnership while wearing shorts

You’d be forgiven for thinking the guy in the middle had lost his pants—or couldn’t afford any. In fact, he’s Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of crypto exchange Binance, which recorded profits higher than Deutsche Bank early last year. In this moment, he has signed a deal with Bermuda’s premier E. David Burt. However, some eagle eyed viewers noticed that these sorts of shorts are actually considered fine, per Bermuda’s formal dress code. So never mind.

Warren Buffett says Bitcoin is “probably rat poison squared”

Warren Buffett is a Bitcoin hater. Last spring, the Sage of Omaha said that Bitcoin is “probably rat poison squared.” Did his position soften this week when he allowed that blockchain is “ingenious?” No it did not. He said it is attracting cheats, and told CNBC: “You can stare at it all day, and no little Bitcoins come out or anything like that. It’s a delusion, basically.”

To clarify, he says that Craig Wright and others have made false claims to the throne of Satoshi Nakamoto. As Gregory Maxwell once explained on …

CCN finally caught up with Bitcoin Cash lead developer Amaury Sechet, who recently graced our headlines with a bit of a stunt: claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto.

Amaury Sechet: I Didn’t Create Bitcoin

Obviously, this was our first question for him. Sechet says the move was “a demonstration of what other scammers have done.” To clarify, he says that Craig Wright and others have made false claims to the throne of Satoshi Nakamoto. As Gregory Maxwell once explained on StackExchange, it’s sadly easily done:

“So, for example, a couple years ago Craig Wright claimed to ‘prove he was Satoshi’ by simply copying some pre-existing signatures out of the blockchain and posting somewhat obfuscated instructions on verifying them. It was figured out pretty quickly, but still managed to fool a lot of people– they were too caught up in the mumbojumbo to think of the obvious.”

Sechet tells CCN:

“It was a demonstration of what other scammers have done. It takes the wind out of their sails. Craig Wright, others before him. Others will do it after.”

Lightning Network ‘Very Bad as a General Purpose Payment System’

Although the #LNTorch experiment has been a great PR move – even seeing participation from Bitcoin maximalist and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey – Sechet says it doesn’t change the fundamental problems with the Lightning Network. | Source: Joe Rogan Experience/YouTube

Of course, CCN took the opportunity to ask Sechet some other questions. Readers might have an interest in the Bitcoin Cash developer’s opinion on #LNTorch and Lightning Network generally.

Sechet pulled no punches:

“#LNTorch is a cool PR stunt, but ultimately someone will run with the money and there will be no way to know who took it.”

It is interesting that the experiment has no safeguards. If the tens of thousands of Bitcoin users eventually “take the torch,” the value of the torch could grow into the hundreds or thousands of dollars. The element of required trust is an interesting juxtaposition to the nature of crypto finance systems.

True to form, the TakeTheTorch.online website already demonstrates that someone has “stolen” the torch at least once.

As to the Lightning Network generally, Sechet feels that it’s inadequate for general purposes. This view will be unpopular for those who see the Lightning Network as the way forward for Bitcoin, which is very much intended to be a general purpose system.

“LN is great for some use cases, but very bad as a general purpose payment system. If you run the numbers they just don’t add up. It’s foolish to bet the farm on it.”

Bitcoin Cash Confirmations Coming Down to Two Seconds

The Bitcoin Cash community has been excited about a project called Avalanche. Similar to the way the Lightning Network speeds up confirmation times for actual usage of Bitcoin, Avalanche will, according to Sechet, bring confirmation times down to as low as two seconds.

“BCH is doing very good on the technical front. There is a ton of cool stuff going on, notably Avalanche, which will bring confirmation time to something like 2s. And CashShuffle, which will increase privacy.”

As to the animosity surrounding the Bitcoin Cash community after last year’s hard fork, Sechet says:

“It seems like there is a lot of confusion out there, numerous people have made sure of that. But like in a video game, you know you are moving in the right direction when you encounter new enemies.”

As Sechet says, plenty of impostors will come along and claim the work of Satoshi Nakamoto. The best guesses are probably the farthest off the mark, though many believe that there’s a significant chance that Satoshi died in the form of famed cryptographer Hal Finney.